(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical wire connection device, and in particular to an electrical wire connection device comprising a housing and a cover removably attached to the housing and configured to allow easy and efficient opening of the cover for re-use of the electrical wire connection device.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 of the attached drawings shows a conventional electrical wire connection device A, which comprises a housing 1 and an interconnection member 2. The housing 1 is made of insulation materials and forms a first wire channel 11 and a second wire channel 12. The first wire channel extends from an end of the housing 1 into the body of the housing 1, but not completely through the body of the housing 1. The second wire channel 12 is substantially parallel to the first wire channel 11 and extends from an end of the housing 1 into and completely through the body of the housing 1 to an opposite end of the housing 1. A lateral side of the second wire channel 12 is open. Extending from a bottom of the housing 1 is cover board 13 that forms a first jointing section 131 that is in the form of and rotatable as a hinge. The cover board 13 is further extended from the first jointing section 131 to a second jointing section 132, which is also in the form and rotatable as a hinge. A remote outer edge of the cover board 13 forms a barb 133. The housing 1 forms in a top surface thereof a recess 14 that extends between the first and second wire channels 11, 12 and the recess 14 is open at the top surface of the housing 1. An outer edge of the top surface of the housing 1 forms an engaging section 15 that releasably and matingly engages the barb 133 of the cover board 13. Further, a protrusion 16 is formed on a bottom of the housing 1 at a location corresponding to the recess 14 and the protrusion 16 extends to a side surface of the housing 1 that is outside the first wire channel 11.
The interconnection member 2 is made of metal materials that are electrical conductive and is made in the form of single or plural blades 21. In the embodiment illustrated, plural blades 21 are taken as an example for explanation. Each blade 21 forms two notches 211.
As shown in FIG. 2, to use the electrical wire connection device A to make connection between two electrical wires, a first one (L1) of the two electrical wires is inserted into the first wire channel 11 of the housing 1 of the electrical wire connection device A, while a second one (L2) of the electrical wires is put into the second wire channel 12 of the housing 1 of the electrical wire connection device A. The interconnection member 2 is positioned in the recess 14 defined in the top surface of the housing 1 and is forcibly driven deeply into the recess 14 so that the blades 21 of the interconnection member 2 pierce through insulation enclosure layers of the electrical wires L1, L2 to have the notches 211 forcibly fit over conductor cores enclosed inside the insulation enclosure layers. Since the interconnection member 2 is made of conductive materials, the electrical wires L1, L2 are electrically connected together. In addition, with the arrangement of the protrusion 16, when the blades 21 of the interconnection member 2 are fit into the recess 14, the blades 21 can be made further deeply into the recess 14 to ensure excellent and secure fitting of the interconnection member 2 in the recess 14, and the protrusion 16 also facilitates mechanical strength of the housing 1. Finally, the cover board 13 is closed onto the top surface of the housing 1 and the barb 133 of the cover board 13 engages the engaging section 15 of the top surface of the housing 1 to securely fix the cover board 13 to the housing 1. In addition, to ensure stable and firm fixing of the cover board 13, the barb 133 of the cover board 13 and the engaging section 15 of the housing 1 are set in tight engagement with each other in order to prevent the cover board 13 from accidental and unexpected opening, leading to exposure of the interconnection member 2 and thus raising risk of leakage of electricity.
An advantage of using the above-described electrical wire connection device A to carry out interconnection between wires is that no stripping of insulation layers of the electrical wires to be connected is necessary. Also, entangling exposed conductor cores of the wires and wrapping the entangled conductor cores with electrical tapes can be eliminated. All these make the above-described electrical wire connection device very popular and appealing in the field.
However, such a conventional electrical wire connection device still surfers certain disadvantages. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when the interconnection between two wires is done with the electrical wire connection device A, if it is found that the electrical connection is poor during an inspection process, the electrical wire connection device A has to be opened for re-connecting the electrical wires, or when there is a need to modify an electrical circuit that is comprised of the electrical wire connection device A, the electrical wire connection device A may also need to be disassembled for re-assembling or connecting the wires. With such situations, the cover board 13 has to be opened away from the housing 1 in order to proceed with the removal of the wires from the housing 1. However, since the barb 133 of the cover board 13 is set in secured engagement with the engaging section 15 of the housing 1 and also since these parts are often tiny and weak parts, it is difficult to apply a suitable for to open the cover board 13 from the housing 1. Often, pliers or other tools are used to tightly pinch the barb 133 of cover board 13 and forcibly flapping the cover board 13 upwards to open the cover board 13. Nevertheless, the housing 1 and the cover board 13 are usually made of plastics, which are of limited strength. Once such a strong force is applied to the cover board 13 by pliers or hand tools to open the cover board 13, the cover board 13 may subjected to damage resulting from undesired deformation. This deteroriates the tight engagement to be realized between the cover board 13 and the housing 1 and is thus adverse to re-securing of the cover board to the housing.
Thus, it is desired to provide a solution to the above problems.